www.iFourWinns.com

Hi folks! Just bought an '04 268 Vista with all the bells and whistles except radar and vhs radio. On shore power, everything works fine. When set to generator, power in cabin panel shows 110v, but nothing works even after the appropriate switches/breakers are flipped to "on." Nothing in my manual says anything about this. Only 89 hrs on Volvo 5.7 and 140 on Gen. Never been in salt water until last weekend. Is there a "master" I'm missing somewhere? Love the Vista. Not my 1st boat by a long shot, but my 1st Four Winns. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated! Really needed the air, outlets and microwave last weekend! Even experienced boaters we were out with were at a loss - though no 4 Winns owners... Retired Army - guess I should have gone Navy!

Was the breaker on the generator on? I've let that one get me rattled before. Turn on the Genny, and it's purring like a kitten, but despite all the breakers on the panel in the cabin being on correctly, still nothing. If you haven't checked, I'd start there.. It's easy sometimes to accidently hit that thing and trip it off while messing around in the engine compartment..

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2004 Four Winns 328 Vista
1997 Larson Cabrio 290 - sold
1988 Rinker Fiesta Vee 248 - sold

Yep. Found that one because no voltage was showing in cabin panel. Took me a minute to find it behind the blower hose. Thanks for answering! Any other ideas? It's got to be something simple like a "cutover switch" from shore to gen not on main panel. - Ashley

There should be a transfer switch on the main panel, on my 268 it's at the very bottom of the main panel, next to the generator start/stop switch and the blower switch. If that is switched to generator, the main on the panel on, and the breaker on the generator is on, and you are showing voltage at the gauge, something should be happening. I think my next step would be to carefully pull that panel and trace power to find out where I'm losing it at. I don't see a breakdown of the ac system in my 268 electrical diagram, it seems to be all for the 12v side but I would imagine that if you have the 110v at the gauge, it's got to be in the panel somewhere, unless you somehow lost the neutral leg from the gen at some point, although I would imagine that the volt meter has to have a neutral to give a reading... but without the 110v diagram in front of me, I couldn't say for sure.

Also the manual says that the neutral and the hot legs run through the main breaker, which explains why it's a double pole breaker on a 110v system. I can speculate that the transfer switch breaker is wired the same way, since it is also a double pole breaker. If the transfer switch is set to generator, maybe the neutral pole is bad, giving you a voltage reading but no power? Also, check your ground faults.

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Jack
2005 268 Vista - Sold

2001 Silverton 35C 8.1L Crusaders

Thanks so much. Was hoping not to have to pull the panel, but your solution is a possibility. The previous owner put a replacement stereo in the space below the cabin panel so I'm betting he could have compromised a connection. But, like you, I'm not sure how the meter could register 110v if the 2nd leg (neutral/ground) isn't properly connected unless it's grounding through an alternate circuit. The idea of an improperly grounded 110v circuit loose on a boat is a scary thought. There is some corrosion around the ground point on the generator (5E like yours) so I'll get my dremel with a wire brush and clean it up and see if anything improves. Any other ideas, pls let me know.

Ashley

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Ashley
2004 268 Vista "CTR+ALT+DEL"
Kohler 5E
Lowrance HDS5

I second the suggestion to manually go around to all your outlets and make sure that none of the GFCI are tripped. Your genset could be making power and showing it on the panel, but if an outlet has tripped it's GFCI then none of them on the circuit will get power. I don't know how many you'd have on that boat. I can't even recall how many I've got on my 348, but it's at least two (one in the head and another topside in the cockpit).

Trip them with the [TEST] button and then reset them. Do this at least twice on each of them and bring along something to plug into the outlet to test if it's providing power afterward.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Thanks to everyone. Was bad switch on master panel. Now if I could just get the Gen to work... Just posted as new topic.

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Ashley
2004 268 Vista "CTR+ALT+DEL"
Kohler 5E
Lowrance HDS5

Guppy,

You say that the switch was bad. How did you know if you still haven't got the gennie running? I'm confused.